Fiscal Deficits and the National Debt

This short video explains the difference between government borrowing (the fiscal deficit) and the accumulated level of government debt drawing on data from the UK and other countries.

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[katrinawilliams]

Thank you, I like how you support your explanations with real data.

[jimspc]

Much of this debt is totaly stupid, not only in value but in the fact it exists and does not need to exist. It is purely corporate welfare. Countries with their own currency do not need to borrow money. Except the USA. They can spend as much as they like in their own currency as and when they want. But should they? That depends entirly on their current economic state and good money management to avoid things like inflation. A surplus does bot equal good nor a deficit equal bad. in fact there should be no such thing as Tax is not revenue for a currency owning government. Tax just extinguishes the surplus of money continulaay putinto the economy by government spending. Refer to ariicles by Beardsley Rumi of the NY fed, The Bank of England, the Bundes bank and many others on money creation and tax.
.For countries and states that do not have their own currency then they need an income to enable spending. But the method of revenue raising is important. Take Greece. Forced to take loans by the Eurozone controled by Germany. Not from the public as is the case in the USA where the creation of debt to be sold to the public is law and covered by bond offering. In fact the only country to have such law. The Greeks at the insistence of Germany had to go to Eurozone commercial banks to get loans at commercial rates or be penalised within the eurozone and handicapped. Bloody stupid. They could possibly have gone back to the Dracma and been better off. Better off as all countries with their own currency and bank are. The issuing of debt is not a necessary, not compulsory thing for a government with its own currency.